Vikings probably used “sunstones” to navigate storms like this one.Illustration by Louis S. Glanzman

Discussion ideas:

Read our encyclopedic entries on direction and navigation, especially the short section on celestial navigation. Besides the sun, what other stars do students think Vikings used to navigate the North Atlantic? (Polaris, the North Star, was probably the most important. Stars in constellations such as the Big Dipper and Orion were probably also used in celestial navigation.)

Scientists think the so-called Alderney Crystal (named after the island near where the shipwreck was discovered) is a Viking sunstone. However, the wreck in which it was discovered dates hundreds of years after the Viking era, and long after magnetic compasses and star charts were in regular use. Historians say the crystal was used by medieval seafarers to fine-tune these more sophisticated instruments. Other scientists are unconvinced that the Alderney Crystal is a sunstone. What sort of evidence would archaeologists need to prove the Alderney Crystal is a Viking sunstone? (Discovery of a similar crystal in an actual Viking shipwreck or burial site; a similar crystal inscribed as a sunstone; or a similar crystal identified as a sunstone in a book, illustration, or map (an authentic one) from the Viking era would all support the identification of the Alderney Crystal as a sunstone.)

Vikings navigated using celestial navigation and “dead reckoning” based on past experience and familiar landmarks. We have much more sophisticated navigational tools today. Name some. (Maps, sextants, charts, GPS, radio communication, compasses . . .)

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